Contemporary variations on promethean shame and discrepancy

Abstract

The article starts from Günther Anders' propositions about Promethean shame and discrepancy elaborated from a set of phenomena, notably iconomania, the cult of the body, the imperative of performance, human engineering, and the dialectic between the Time of the End and the end of times, inherent to the Atomic Age. In each section of the text, brief syntheses of theses advanced by Günther Anders are then articulated with reflections from a group of authors such as Guy Debord, Alain Ehrenberg, João Bernardo, Thomas Meyer and Jonathan Crary, among others, and contrasted with recent phenomena such as the visual exacerbation of the self and the massive production of self-avatars through social networks and platforms and so-called generative artificial intelligence technologies, such as “deep fake”; of transhumanist ideology; and from the perspective of the environmental catastrophe. With this, we intend to highlight the relevance of Anders' thinking, which sheds light on relevant contemporary dilemmas.

Keywords: Günther Anders; Promethean shame; Promethean discrepancy.